It has long been known in the art to provide a trailer hitch assembly for towing a trailer behind a vehicle incorporating (a) a hitch bar receiver connected by a frame to the vehicle, (b) a hitch bar including a mounting rack or support and a post adapted for engagement in the receiver and (c) a ball mount head adapted for engagement on the mounting rack. This basic type of trailer hitch assembly is shown in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,482,856 to Reese; U.S. Pat. No. 3,768,837 to Reese; U.S. Pat. No. 4,033,601 to Lindahl et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,375,867 to Kass et al. also own by the assignee of the present invention.
In the over thirty years since this basic type of trailer hitch assembly was developed, numerous design modifications have been made with a goal of improving the overall product. For example, competitive pressures in the marketplace have led the various manufacturers of trailer hitch assemblies to make a serious effort to control and reduce manufacturing costs while at the same time increasing the overall towing capacity of the assemblies to benefit the end user. While significant improvements have been made, these competitive pressures are still present and still further improvements relating to the control of costs and the enhancement of performance characteristics are desired.